Today we’d like to introduce you to Lukas Schulz.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I grew up in the south of Germany. A small town in Bavaria, right at the border of Austria and Switzerland. After a trip to Brazil in 2013, my first trip to another continent, I got a taste of what traveling and experiencing a different culture would be like. Coming back from that trip sparked the idea in me to move out of my hometown and go find a job elsewhere. While I would’ve gone anywhere, a client of mine at BMW offered me a job in sales in the East Bay of San Francisco, San Ramon. After my Visa was approved, I moved to the US in June 2014. Simultaneously, this was the start of my creative career, where a good friend of mine and I started taking headshots of our friends in the basement of his house. He took care of the camera and lighting and I creatively directed our talent. Sharing time between the US and Germany, I took every opportunity to film, edit or direct anything I could get my hands on. Overnight editing sessions until the early am were the norm.
I started out during the midst of the hype and rise of Casey Neistat and Sam Kolder. Both of them have been a big inspiration for various reasons during the start of my career. Youtube was my teacher in all things video and photo. Finding inspiration in other people’s videos and watching tutorials to learn new skills day in and day out. While my job at the time was in sales, I was slowly able to move into marketing and was given the freedom to work on video and photo projects myself. Very small projects but it fulfilled me with joy. From creating commercial projects, travel vlogs, landscape images, and portraits, all the way to a full premium coffee table book with over 100 images, I did it all. While posting some of my personal content on a few social platforms, other people in my network were wondering if I would be interested in producing content for their brands and companies. I remember my first paid job, where the client handed me a physical check of $500. A feeling of gratitude and excitement I won’t ever forget. Fast forward to 2018, I quit my job and started out as a freelance videographer. Not having a client base and no real “job security” was a big change in my life and not an easy one at first. I was looking for my niche, the ideal work environment, clients who want to work with me, and so on. Most of my first gigs were through freelance platforms like Upwork, the network I had through my previous job and referrals from friends. Early on in my freelance career, I was able to connect with brands that were up and coming with lower budgets. However, while their company was growing, I was able to grow with them. Through building good business relationships with each of them, they trusted me with bigger budgets and productions further down the road.
I believe that most entrepreneurs need an ever-changing work environment where there are new challenges, growth and newness happening every once in a while. That itch got stronger and stronger over time. Working as a one-man-band felt old fairly quickly and got stressful throughout the months and years. Producing, creative directing, shooting and post-production for multiple clients a month wasn’t what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. So, I tried to restructure the business and add at least one other person to each estimate I created. Most of those times, it was someone who knew things better than I did when it came to lighting, audio or camera. Because ultimately, I wanted to creative direct. It’s mid-2023 and my projects still vary from small, with a crew of 3-5 people, to big productions with a crew of 10-15 people. In the grand scheme of things, this might still be small to one or another but to see the sets we work on these days compared to five years ago feels like a big achievement to me. I’m incredibly thankful to the people I’m able to work with and learn from on a daily basis. In addition to that, we opened our first, very own, 3000 square feet studio and creative space centrally located in San Francisco in November 2022
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I wish I could say it was easy but candidly speaking, it has been the most joyful and most intimidating ride of my life at the same time.
Let me break this down for you.
Working in a service-based business:
– Providing video production services comes with the caveat that you earn money based on how many projects you work on in a month. Slow months were scary, especially while I started out or during times like COVID-19. Not knowing that there’s any solid income if you don’t get hired for projects feels intimidating if you come from a solid and stable job environment with a paycheck at the end of each month.
Expansion:
– expanding the business means that you need funds to invest. Being bootstrapped meant that every penny I earned goes back into the business. Figuring out new marketing and sales strategies to generate more business is something I had to think about a lot. At first, most of the money I spent on marketing went down the toilet so the risk of investing into the wrong category was always there.
Being an entrepreneur:
– while I had a lot of friends and family supporting me through my growth, the majority of time I felt lonely. Not in a social, I don’t have any friends, kind of way. More so during the times when I needed a mentor or another business owner to give me advice while I was facing difficult situations. A 50/50 partner to share ideas and concerns with. Someone who understands your circumstances and has gone through similar emotions. It took me a while to find a surrounding network of other business owners that I was willing to open up to and talk about my struggles. This helped me a ton and is still one of my most valuable assets to this day.
Burning out:
– You don’t realize this until it is already happening. I’m sure people experience this in many different ways but constantly being stressed about work, shouldn’t be norm. Running your own business comes with a lot of responsibility but is not supposed to give you anxiety or have any negative effects on your well-being. I felt inclined to have to work 24/7 and be available to everybody at all times for a long period of owning my business. Setting clear boundaries between my work and private life and taking full days and weekends off has helped a lot to clear my mind and release some of the tension.
This all sounds very apocalyptic and doesn’t really vouch for starting your own business. BUT, all those lessons came with a great learning experience and ended up in personal and professional development. Managing the hard times ultimately make you understand yourself and the world better, step by step. I’m thankful for all the little learning lessons in the past few years and excited for everything that’s to come.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
We are a full-service video production agency focusing on short-form commercial and advertising content. With creative in-house, we can pick you up at any stage of your process. From creating the storyboard and idea to just executing what your team has created already.
We’re storytellers at heart with a focus on making our clients grow. Learning about their brand identity and how they communicate is our core value. Then, we consult on strategy so you can leverage our videos to grow your business.
So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
You can reach out to us via our website www.stmntstudios.com or reach out to me directly on Linkedin at https://www.linkedin.com/in/lukas-schulz-2a0787a5
Following us on our social channels also always helps: https://www.instagram.com/stmnt.studios/
Pricing:
- Our minimum project size is $7500 with the sky being the limit :).
Contact Info:
- Website: www.stmntstudios.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stmnt.studios/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stmntstudios
Image Credits
Cat Fennell Yuli Yaro Caroll Andrewsk
